Potty Training Wars: Why Won’t My Kid TELL ME When She Has To Go?
Hi Amy,
I’ve scoured your archives and can’t find the answer to the particular potty training problem we’ve been dealing with. After months of casually going to the bathroom on the potty, we decided to “boot-camp” my daughter over a long weekend a few weeks after she turned two. After a rough first couple of days, it seemed like things finally clicked and she started going to the bathroom on the potty regularly. She’s all about the “I DO IT MYSELF” and often kicks us out of the bathroom entirely while she’s doing her business. She’s dry after naps and we recently ditched the night-time pull-ups as well as she wakes up dry in the mornings too.
It all sounds like it’s going wonderfully, right? Here’s the problem: She still won’t TELL US when she needs to pee. Meaning if we aren’t watching the clock and aren’t fully aware of when her last potty break was, she will just pee all over herself. She’s a very verbal child and has been telling us when she needs to poop since the very beginning of potty training– she hasn’t had a single pooping accident since we started (which seems to be the total opposite of most kids. Go figure). So it’s not as if she doesn’t have the means to communicate her needs with us.
There have been a few times (maybe 5?) that she actually has told us she needs to pee or has just gone to the bathroom on her own, and we heaped on the praise and rewards when that happened. She clearly feels bad when she pees in her pants, to the point of starting to cry sometimes. I’ve tried not changing her pants right away but all that does is get more urine all over my house, which ew. It’s been 2 months now… shouldn’t she be able to be a little more independent on the potty-front by now?
Thanks!
She’s still young for a potty-trained toddler
Nope, this all sounds about right. She’s on the younger side of potty training, which SOUNDS like every parent’s dream scenario, but the reality is that a lot of the “training” is actually going to require you to train yourself. So you’ll need to watch the clock and prompt and remind her to take potty breaks for a while longer. That’s pretty much life with a newly-potty-trained toddler. And even some not-newly trained toddlers.
Two months isn’t long enough for this to be second nature to her yet, and most two-year-olds (and most three-year-olds, and even a lot of four-year-olds) just aren’t great about stopping what they’re doing to use the bathroom. They’re actually kinda notoriously BAD about it, in fact. Who wants to stop playtime and go use the boring old bathroom?
(“NOT MEEEEEE,” says every toddler ever.)
Plus, she’s still learning to listen to her bladder’s cues (and probably still has a ways to go when it comes to correctly predicting how much time she has before “I think I need to pee” turns into “I NEED TO PEE THIS VERY SECOND OH NO IT’S HAPPENING”). She also might not always remember that she’s no longer wearing a diaper and can’t just…go…whenever she needs to. In time, yes, she’ll get better at either telling you she needs to go and/or just running to the bathroom when nature calls, but I wouldn’t expect that just yet, this soon after potty training.
Tips to help your newly-potty-trained toddler
The easiest thing to do is to set an alarm on your phone (there are also potty-timer apps, if you want to get fancy). You can either try asking her if she needs to go when the alarm goes off, or if the answer is always “no” and then an accident ensues 15 minutes later…just make it a mandatory potty break. And then try to incorporate regular breaks into her day whenever you can — before you leave the house, as soon as you come home, before/after meals, etc. Do not scold or shame over accidents — just keep it super matter-of-fact and assure her that it’s nothing to get upset about! It happens! She’ll make it to the potty next time! You’re still so proud of her!
In time, the whole potty habit and ritual will become more ingrained and she’ll be ready for fewer reminders and more independence…though be prepared to still spend the next year or two moderately obsessed with and/or micromanaging her bladder.
More Advice on Early Potty Training:
1. The Pros and Cons of Early Potty Training
2. Potty Training Realism
